Stipple Portraits

August 22, 2005 8:05 PM

Stipple Portrait Drawings and Pen and Ink Illustration by Wall Street Journal portrait artist Noli Novak.
posted by ColdChef (29 comments total)

How it's done.
posted by ColdChef at 8:05 PM on August 22, 2005

She also rocks out.
posted by ae4rv at 8:15 PM on August 22, 2005

Is that where all that Barnes & Noble store art comes from? She's really, really good... I am awed.
posted by rolypolyman at 8:17 PM on August 22, 2005

I mentioned Noli here once before, but she definitely deserves her own post.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:17 PM on August 22, 2005

You'd think they'd just have a Photoshop filter for this kind of thing.
posted by blendor at 8:17 PM on August 22, 2005

Novak makes Dick Cheney and Sheik Ahmed Yassin look dignified. I'm impressed.
posted by philosophistry at 8:20 PM on August 22, 2005

Not necessarily a Photoshop filter, I'd assume that the newspaper would simply have software that did it. It would seem that if it takes two hours to do a hasty one for a late-breaking story that it's taking far too long in today's world of 24-hour news networks.
posted by awesomebrad at 8:20 PM on August 22, 2005

Her collage work is also pretty impressive. Good stuff!
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:22 PM on August 22, 2005

How it's done.

Awe, come on, CC. That's just a tease. This is how it's really done. (You're welcome, budding scratchboard artists!)

You'd think they'd just have a Photoshop filter for this kind of thing.

Check out my link. Photoshop helps to a certain extent, as do photographs. But getting smooth gradient transitions, and mimicking textures properly (particularly hair) requires good 'ol fashioned time and skill, and lots of it.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:24 PM on August 22, 2005

And since I'm being so generous with my amazing links, here's another great one.

Technical Illustrations tutorial (aka cut-aways). For the seriously anal-retentive with too much free time on their hands, who really want to explore just what Adobe's products can be used to produce.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:31 PM on August 22, 2005

Whoa. She's kinda hot.
posted by chasing at 8:36 PM on August 22, 2005

This is the person who does those WSJ drawings.
posted by swift at 8:39 PM on August 22, 2005

she also makes rumsfeld look evil.
posted by kliuless at 8:44 PM on August 22, 2005

One of my goals, before I die, is to have a stipple portrait in The Wall Street Journal.

I need to become a whiz-kid or threaten a dignitary. Or change my name to "Diddy."
posted by ColdChef at 8:54 PM on August 22, 2005

the person who does those WSJ drawings

Yeah she cranks out a dozen images a day (at 5hrs each) and moonlights as a rock star in her free time.
posted by stbalbach at 8:58 PM on August 22, 2005

She's also on Flickr.
posted by euphorb at 12:01 AM on August 23, 2005

She's a busy girl.
posted by IndpMed at 12:17 AM on August 23, 2005

Eh, wow. She is incredibly talented and hot. She should be designing bank notes.
posted by fire&wings at 2:16 AM on August 23, 2005

She is incredibly boring. It takes no talent to trace or reproduce photographs. Those corporate portraits are seriously gross, and why do beautiful people who yell about themselves get everyone's attention? What a totally worthless person.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 2:51 AM on August 23, 2005

NPR piece/interview on her.
posted by TonyRobots at 5:40 AM on August 23, 2005

I'm not sure I'm all that impressed. I like the stipple stuff, but it's essentially tracing. The collages are insipid, which I think probably does a better job of providing a gauge to her actual artistic talent. A nice post with a bunch of cool ancillary links, though. And she is attractive.
posted by OmieWise at 6:27 AM on August 23, 2005

maybe when gorgor moves out of his mom's basement he can be as useless.
posted by substrate at 6:54 AM on August 23, 2005

She seems talented enough and yes, I'd set phasers to "Hit it!" That said, I guess I'm put off by anyone who feels a need to take pictures of themselves in a mirror and then publicly display them.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 6:56 AM on August 23, 2005

narcissist with stippling skill -- wow. there were several of these in my high school.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 9:18 AM on August 23, 2005

I have such a total crush on her. If I was still in NJ I'd probably go try to find her and chat her up... :)

Note that (in the photos) her bandmate has the balls to shamelessly wear a WINGER t-shirt!
posted by zoogleplex at 9:53 AM on August 23, 2005

She is incredibly boring.

At least she doesn't spell her name with numbers.
posted by dobbs at 10:43 AM on August 23, 2005

Note that (in the photos) her bandmate has the balls to shamelessly wear a WINGER t-shirt!

And play a Squier guitar. Ugh....
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:09 PM on August 23, 2005

She's gorgeous.

okay, and big SHUT THE FAWK UP goes out to anyone who thinks something like this doesn't require a hefty bag full of talent.
posted by Parannoyed at 4:14 PM on August 23, 2005

...has produced Journal art for nearly 20 years...
...reached the United States in 1984, after college...

Whoa, is she, like, 40?
posted by breath at 1:52 AM on August 24, 2005